In East Hampton Town Justice Court on Jan. 11, a show of compassion made for a bittersweet conclusion to a case involving a struggling Montauk fishing-boat captain.
“Don’t despair. People get through it, and you will, too,” Town Justice Lisa R. Rana told a sullen Capt. Mark R. Marose of Montauk, who pleaded guilty to a single drunken-driving charge stemming from an August 2021 arrest on three misdemeanor charges and several traffic violations.
Captain Marose, 68, was said to have passed out in his car, on Tara Road in Montauk, with the engine running and his foot on the brake, at around 7 p.m. on Aug. 10, 2021. According to a police report released shortly afterward, he showed signs of intoxication and failed both field sobriety tests and a breath test. Police also said they found an oxycodone pill, for which he did not have a prescription, in a bottle labeled for a different medication.
Saying that “the court is reasonably assured that there were some impediments” in Captain Marose’s ability to complete treatment for a substance-abuse issue, Justice Rana sentenced him to a 90-day suspension of his driver’s license, $760 in fines and surcharges, and mandatory completion of a drug and alcohol rehab program. He surrendered his license.
“You can’t afford to have anything else happen,” she warned him.
Also on Jan. 11, Jorge Garcia-Elizalde of East Hampton, 49, pleaded guilty to a count of disorderly conduct, a violation, stemming from a July 31, 2022, incident in which he was accused of punching another man repeatedly. The man reportedly needed treatment for eye and nose injuries at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.
The initial charge against Mr. Garcia-Elizalde was third-degree assault, a misdemeanor. Court records show a witness provided written testimony that the fight started when he defended his girlfriend, whose uncle — the man he had punched — had been seen “grabbing her ass.”
Justice Rana ordered Mr. Garcia-Elizalde to pay $325 in fines and surcharges. He was given 30 days to pay.